The summer is almost over and although I'm excited for fall & winter, I really don't feel like we HAD a summer. It rained most of the time, and on the few days the sun came out, there were so many mosquitoes that going outside really wasn't pleasant. We did manage to cross off a few activities from our summer

I absolutely adore the outdoors, gardening, and flowers. This year, my husband took us to the Montreal botanical gardens. They had an amazing international mosaiculture exhibition; it was breathtaking. The above picture was my favorite mosaic. It's a 15 meter tall representation of mother earth. The amount of work that goes into planning, building, growing and maintaining the plants is unthinkable.

During our trip, I practiced my macro photography skills. I must admit that after experiencing the full reach of manual photography, I just can't go back to point and shoot. One of my future projects is writing down everything I learned.

Have you tried manual photography on a DSLR camera? Do you like it?

This exposition is the world's most prestigious competition of horticultural art and it's not hard to see why, just look at the details in the above mosaic: the fingers, the clothing and the hair. Making it is something, keeping it looking like this is something else.

200 experts from Canada, Belgium, China, South Korea, Spain, USA, France, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and across Africa created over 40 plant-life sculptures, some big enough to walk through. This year's theme was "land of hope" focused on biodiversity; the artists also portrayed their nationality and culture.

This chameleon is built entirely with succulents. Isn't it amazing what you can do with plants? I never would have thought you could make sculptures with them. Some people are so creative it blows my mind.

I'm so glad we were able to see this exhibition. I don't think my son will remember seeing these amazing mosaics but I'm sure it will return to Montreal in the future. We will definitely go again.

Have you ever seen any mosaicultures? Do you like gardening?

Here I am, posing in front of one of the first mosaics. It's a lot bigger than it looks, I'm standing about 20 meters away.